Martin Brundle convinced of driver change for ‘two Red Bull teams’ audition

Martin Brundle is convinced Liam Lawson “will” be in the VCARB seat in Austin, replacing Daniel Ricciardo as Red Bull evaluate him ahead of F1 2025.

Failing to fire in the first half of this season as he trailed his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, much was said about the possibility of Red Bull dropping Ricciardo from their junior team during the summer break.

Liam Lawson ‘will’ be in the VCARB for Red Bull audition in Austin

Despite the speculation, the team backed the Aussie while also announcing that Sergio Perez would retain his Red Bull seat.

That, though, did little to silence the whispers.

Failing to score in the first three races after the summer break, Ricciardo arrived in Singapore amidst claims that it would be his final F1 Grand Prix.

And all the signs pointed at that with the Honey Badger pitting late in the race for a final glory lap that snatched fastest lap from Max Verstappen’s title rival Lando Norris to him being the very last driver to leave the paddock after reportedly hugging everyone and anyone.

Then of course there were Christian Horner’s words as he spoke of the “bigger picture” and confirmed Red Bull would evaluate the drivers in the break between Singapore and Austin.

It has Brundle adamant that Lawson will be in the car come the United States GP, and he’s not just auditioning for the second VCARB seat.

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“Liam Lawson will take over his RB from Austin and it’s his chance to prove he should be on the 2025 grid in either of the two Red Bull teams,” he wrote in his post-Singapore column for Sky.

That’s because he feels keeping Perez at Red Bull could cost the team dearly next season.

“Sergio Perez would bring the second Red Bull home in 10th from 13th on the grid for yet another disappointing event,” he said. “This is a real problem for Red Bull going into 2025.”

So far, though, Red Bull have not said anything about their driver line up for the Austin race.

It has been suggested Red Bull have to put Lawson in the car for five races this season as per his contract but Horner refused to confirm or deny that.

“I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of drivers contracts,” said the team boss. “There’s privacy between the company and the individuals.

“But, Liam, the job that he did for us last year in the VCARB car was very impressive.

“Now, we took experience over that, because Daniel was our banker for if Sergio were to drop the ball, and Daniel’s had a reasonable season, but it hasn’t been a stellar year.

“Now, the question is, how good is Liam? And you know, sometimes, difficult decisions have to be made in order to get those answers.

“Now, we’ll sit down with all of those options available to us during this next three-week gap.”

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